It's always good to be able to conserve on funds when playing the "Audio Game".......but you get what you pay for The reason for this topic is to form a basis for operators who want to play the 'Game, but expect to get the same performance, features and control of external processors out of a W2IHY 2 or 8 band equalizer--but that's false advertisement, so what do you expect? Lemme say it..."IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!" For that full VooDoo Audio--even average Enhanced SSB audio, the 8 band equalizer WILL NOT provide the same full accurate control of external processors. Many try and falsely believe they have acheived "nirvana" Maybe in their minds to THEIR level of satisfaction--which they think is the same everyone elses, let alone mine.

When the discussion arises and the mention of processors come into play, lots of people [with 'IHY's] start to loath at the very thought..."processors are overkill".....yeah...sure they are if you want to be limited and pigeon holed. The 'IHY is [as one operator said] a tone control--yuk [Tube] Preamps, parametric equalizers, [single or multi-band] compressors, effects processor and interface provide you with the opportunity to upgrade, downgrade and revise your system the way you see fit.

I can speak from experience with the 8 band EQ and after 2 days I sent it back and went back to external processors. Now don't get me wrong....the 'IHY does a place in an audio chain [if need be] as a very good interface--great RF isolation and breaks ground loops. But if you follow basic electrical theory your rack/station can be RFI and -free. **For an interface I use a Jensen 12:1 transformer to get mic level output from the processors.**

The truth is, tons of people [including SWL's] are enjoying the Enhaced SSB sound...and each week more and more people are catching an ear for VooDoo Audio. Soon enough [those that want to play] will realize that there is NO substitute.....--let's hope sooner rather than later...

You are correct.
The correct sound for "Audio", like so many other things in this Life, is different for everybody.

They Way We like it?
We like Smooth, Compressed, FM Studio sounding, Relaxed Audio with lots of Rich and Robust Harmonix. We like Audio with "LIFE" in it.
It should sound "Alive", like in real life.
Not Flat and Dead sounding with lots of monotonic components.
Not Shreiky, as a Padnah, N3JI says...definitely not "Ice Pick in the Ear Audio"!! But everybody is different. Some people like that sound. We chose not to listin to it because it "Hurts" our ears. It is not pleasant to listin too. It is not fun.
We have been hearing a trend of the so called "Audiophiles" to slowly abolish more and more of there Low End Frequencies, while ever increasing their Top End Frequencies.
5 Years ago, everyone was sounding so sublime and perfect. Now they are migrating back to the Shreiky and Lispy realm of Audio.
Seems like everything below 100cps is being cut and the Upper Mids, and High Frequencies are being ever increased. Especially on the Dudes running 6Kc. It is just plain awful. There have only been a few that have really got the top Frequencies setup correctly. You should only really here them when you utter them, not all the time....constantly. We watch their Audio on the SpectraLab Graph and the High Frequencies are "Flatlined" all the way out to 6Kc, and then drop. That is WAY too much for Us. It makes it Shrill and Lispy. Very hard on our ears.
This is just our opinion
But, like We said at the beginning of this Post, "The Correct sound for Audio is different for Everybody".
Too each his own. They need to make it sound the way they like.
Including Us.

I like the way I can Process My audio with the External Equipment. I like the Control, the way I can Shape and Message it.
And the most important thing of all........

Well, what bothers the shyt outta me is when an operator asks a simple question and then gets 10 operators with [more than likely] different radios, listening at different bandwidths and giving the station advice on setting up his EQ . I get FRUTRATED with this....especially when they tell ME how I sound to them--even deaf fux who claim to be listening 6Kc wide. A perfect example of this was a few years ago when Tyler [KA0KA] helped me setup my EQ parameters on the air. It took about 45 minutes of work and him and John [NU9N] were extremely satisfied with the outcome. That very night on another band all I got was BS about too much bass.

This brings me my point [and possible explanasion] as to why these guys are "pulling their nutz" on the low-end. It may be that these guys are realizing that not any people are listening [heavily] below 100cps. Whether it be the receiver's radio not being able to hear the true low-end [IMO, Icom and Yaesu rigs do not have the true robust, tranparent, fidelitied receive as the 870 and 850/DSP100 (combo)]. Those that disagree obviously are not listening for what I am.

I remember the days of trying to acheive LOW-END on 14.178. Now that John has explained some theory behind having a "balanced" sound [with a bass rolloff starting at about 300cps] these guys are following this path--like zombies. I will never forget how some of the "big boyz" on '178 were having orgasms when they heard Greg. Thank god Greg stayed true and continued to do his own thing.

I have to admit that I'm enjoying the compliments I've been receiving since bought this 870 and revised my EQ. And this includes people on nets like South CARS.